stability
by xogutterflower
Summary: "This is a Catholic nut-house, Doctor. Everyone's mad here and I wouldn't trust what anyone says. Not the clergymen and not the patients."


Stability.

_nulla._

The first time Sasuke came was in March. March 17, 1962, to be exact. It was a rainy, stormy day and he approached the brick building with extra caution, just as his boss told him. A liscensed therapist, he had no idea why he was sent to a mental institution, but didn't voice his frustrations. He kept them inside, bit his tongue, and straightened his tie. He remembered his boss telling him that keeping his mouth shut _was _the reason people went off the deep end, but he paid no heed. For all he could tell, his boss was bat-shit insane. The old geezer never did anything but obsess over his dead parents, as if they were gods or something. Sasuke wasn't too interested in Orochimaru, but what the old man could do for him. He might've been crazy, but the man was a genius. Working with him could help him advance his PHD, and that's what Sasuke needed. He needed an adnvancement, and he needed one fast. Staring up at the big, brick building, he knew that this would be an _interesting _experience to say the least.

When he walked into the building, a shock of pink hair greeted him. She was dressed in a bright blue dress, the middle sinched together with a brown belt, showing off a tiny waist. On her feet were white tennis shoes, ones meant for runnning. She was helping up a blonde-haired girl, the same age as she. "There you go, Ino-pig," she said, putting the girl in a chair. "Be good," she said, pointing to the girl. Her tone was serious, but gentle, the same tone he used when talking to his patients. If he hadn't known better, he would've thought that she was the same as he, a doctor tending to a patient. He would've liked to believe it, but the ink on the back of her neck told him different. She was a patient herself, a patient of this facility. She'd obviously had extensive education – or natural skill – in comforting and easing pains, for he felt his own self being swayed by her short words.

He never expected her to turn around so quickly, and he never expected for her to have the brightest eyes he's ever seen. They shone like emeralds, and reflected promise – of what, he wasn't sure. Sasuke could tell that this girl had potential to be something like him. _What is she doing here? _he thought, giving her a soft smile. "You must be the doctor," she said, her voice still soft. "Doctor Uchiha, if I'm correct."

"You are," he answered back smoothly. "You wouldn't happen to know where Father Kakashi is, do you?" he asked her, watching her smile. The twist of her pink lips made her whole face light up, and Sasuke noticed, but refused to be moved by it. _Crazy girls are still crazy, even if they are pretty, _he said in his head, watching her with a careful eye.

"Father Kakashi is the room in the back and towards the left," she said, pointing in the direction. Sasuke began to excuse himself when she grabbed his sleeve and added, "But I wouldn't trust him." Sasuke opened his mouth in confusion, but she spoke quickly and quietly. "This is a Catholic nut-house, Doctor. Everyone's mad here and I wouldn't trust what anyone says. Not the clergymen and not the patients." With that, she let him go and walked in the opposite direction, towards the blond girl sitting in the chair. "Be on your way," she said to him, not looking his way.

Following the girl's orders, Sasuke walked towards the back. He could vaguely hear a light hum to a song he'd almost forgotten. Throwing a longing, worn look towards the pair of women, he turned and walked where she'd told him, fighting her to be right.

.

.

.

_repetition_

It was during his first session that he learned the pink haired girl's name. The blond she was helping when he'd first arrived, Yamanaka Ino, spoke highly of her as she laid on the little black couch. With her dull blue eyes shining and white hands in the air, she said smiling, "I was a little bit lonely here, all by myself. I know that what I see isn't real, but really bad nightmares, thanks to Sakura. They aren't really there, you know. They're just night terrors you have when you're awake. I get really lonely, all by myself." While Sasuke jotted this down, she stopped smiling and cackled, before setlling her face into a light smile. Her laugh was loud and echoed through the makeshift office, repeating itself to itself. Ino seemed to take bright delight in this, for she did it three more times. "Sakura's really great, you know. She's smart and she's pretty and she's great. I used to be really lonely, all by myself, but Sakura makes sure that I'm never lonely. She's really pretty. She told me that man in green andthe woman in pink weren't going to hurt me. They're not real, Ino-pig. You can rest now, Ino-pig. Don't fret, Ino-pig. Be good, Ino-pig."

"So Sakura helped erase the people you see?" Sasuke asked, which made Ino shoot up from her seat. She stared at him with big, blue eyes, and narrowed them at him. With flared nostrils, she snorted at him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" she asked him, suspiciously. She eye'd him up and down before leaping in front of his seat, grabbing onto the sides of his chair. "You're trying to take Sakura away from me, aren't you?!" she accused. "You can't take her away from me," she growled. "You can't make me lonely any more! You're not leaving me! She's not leaving me! YOU CAN'T TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME! SHE'S MINE! SHE'S MINE! SHE LOVES ME VERY MUCH! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!" she screamed. She pointed a finger towards his chest and screamed at him, "DO YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND, INO?!"

The next moment, her eyelids started drooping. She tried to give him one more menacing stare, but collapsed into Sasuke's lap, her head landing on his thikgh heavily. Begfore Sasuke could look up, a voice cut in, "I am _so _sorry for her behavior." Sasuke averted his deep brown eyes to look at the girl with pink hair and green eyes, and offered her a small smile. He took notice of her floral white dress and white gym shoes, not usual attire for _anyone _in a mental asylum. He also noticed the syringe in her hand – not that he commented on it. "She gets defensive when someone so much as _mentions_ me. I guess you could call it jealousy, but she's confident that I love her," she said, bending down to pick the larger blonde up.

"She's afraid you'll leave her one day," Sasuke said, jotting what she said in his notebook. His voice was even and clear, even as he struggled to keep his eyes off of her. "She's obsessed with you," he said, licking his pen, "She thinks you're her savior or something like that." The pink haired woman giggled at this.

"I don't think it's wrong to _like _someone else, Doctor," she said, lying the woman on the couch and sitting next to her. She spoke easily and freely, as if the walls weren't meant to confine them to the room, to confidentiality. Conversation came easily with her, he noticed, and wrote that down on a seperate sheet of apaper, which he quickly labeled 'Sakura.' "We've all developed a crush on someone else at one point." She crossed one leg over the other and laughed through her pink lips. Her white teeth made Sasuke smile, but the scar under her neck made him shiver.

"This is more than a simple crush, Sakura," he warned, reclining in his chair. "She's here for a reason – Ino's dangerous. Crushes can be dangerous, you should keep yourself alert around her." Sakura cocked an eyebrow, and placed her elbows on her knee. He noticed the way her dress rode up a teensy bit, revealing more of her creamy thighs. A light smile graced her pink lips and she said something with her eyes, though Sasuke wasn''t good at non-verbal communication.

"Is that so?"

"It has to be," he responded quickly, causing her sit back. "Are you a doctor or a patient, Sakura?" he asked. Judging from the slight widening of the greenest eyes he'd ever seen, he caught her off-gaurd. He wasn't sure if this was a good thing, considering she could be _completely_ insane. He wasn't sure what he was doing with her, but before he lets himself progress any further, he'd have to know.

"Would you believe me –" she'd started, but an opening of the heavy metal door scared her into silence. From that door emerged Father Kakashi, the head of the asylum. His silver hair stuck out at odd ends and his visable eye was lonesome, but Sasuke was sure that he had never met a more rightous man.

Sakura, on the other hand, was not so sure. His lone eye wandered across the room and settled on the pinkette, a small smile crossing his covered lips. "Well, if it isn't Little Lizzie!" he exclaimed, clapping a hand on Sakura's bare shoulder. The girl visably grimanced, and threw his hand off of her. Glancing around at Sasuke, he said, "I see you've done your duty and came for your own evaluation. It may do you some good, love."

"My name is _not _Lizzie," the girl growled under her breath, glaring at the man. "I was entertaining the company, t'is all. I don't need an 'evaluation', _Father," _she sneered at the man, huffing slightly. "I have all my senses, but I believe that you don't have yours." Sasuke looked over at the man, who remained impassive, yet amused.

"Your record says otherwise, _Lizzie," _he continued, much to Sasuke's confusion. Kakashi saw this, and chuckled at him. _You poor, poor fool, _he thought, looking at Sasuke with a slight sense of pity. Leaning against the doorframe, he continued, "You haven't read, Doctor?"

"This is a Catholic nut-house, Doctor! Everyone's mad here and I wouldn't trust what anyone says. Not the clergymen _and_ not the patients!" Sakura yelled, her voice strained and angry. Her fingers clenched and unclenched, forming fists and open palms. Her floral dress seemed like more of an obstacle than a bright distraction and she was seeing the world in black and white – Doctor Uchiha was white and Father Kakashi was black.

"Sakura murdered her parents with an axe when she was thirteen. She's been stuck here since," Kakashi spoke evenly, sending a warning look to Sasuke. "Sakura's dangerous, Sasuke. She may seem sweet and cute, but it's an act. She's not stable and she's not reliable. Don't get attatched to a pretty face," he said, walking out.

Sakura sat still on the couch, playing with the hem of her dress. "I'm stable," she muttered, fiddling with it. "I'm stable." She closed her eyes and inhaled a breath and said it again, "I'm stable." She peeled her eyes open and looked into Sasuke's dark brown orbs. "I'm stable," she spoke, clearly. It was a promise, but to whom, she wasn't sure. Sasuke, on the other hand, wasn't as convinced.

"You're a patient?" he asked, slowly, tenatively.

"Yes," she said, only her lips moving. Her eyes were still locked with his, and every tilt of his head, she followed.

"Did you murder your parents?" he asked, equally as slow and equally as timid. Her green eyes followed him, and were still the greenest he'd ever seen. She licked her pink lips, prompting him to do the same. Her pink hair settled on her shoulder as she contemplated the right answer to his loaded question.

"No," she'd settled on. Sasuke released a breath he didn't know he was holding, and moved closer to her. She smiled at this action, all pink and white. "You're very beautiful, Doctor."

"As are you," he responded, his face a mere inch from hers. Her cheeks grew rosy as her eyelids closed.

"I've got a crush on you," she said, closing the distance between them briefly. It was a simple, quick gesture, a peck between two pairs of lips. Sweet and soft, but lacking in an aspect they both did not know. There weren't sparks, but she did feel a magnetic closeness between the two that they _did _feel. Green eyes looked into brown, but only saw her reflection staring back at her. She placed a small, tender hand on his chest and pushed him back, only slightly. "I'm stable," se whispered. "You're afraid," she swore.

"Should I be?" he asked, taking her hand in his, but not holding it. Sakura was a dangerous woman, according to Kakashi. She'd admitted to being a patient, and he knew that becoming attatched to someone who could have committed two acts of murder was certain death. Sakura was death, beautiful but quiet death. A poison or drug, something that chilled his nerves and made his heart beat just a little faster. Gorgeous, but deadly.

Femme fatale.

"I can't tell you that, Doctor," she said, smoothing her dress.

"And why not?" Sasuke demanded. He put his hands on her shoulders, watching her flinch ever so slightly. "You're an enigma."

"I wouldn't trust what anyone says. Not the clergymen and not the patients," she said, trailing softly. She stood and walked towards the door, smiling softly at him. "I'm a patient. Crushes can be dangerous, you should keep yourself alert around her," she said, with a light sniff.

"Wait—let me have three more words!" he said, grabbing her wrist. Sakura shook violently, but shook her head softly at him. I love you was all she heard when he opened his mouth. She turned and pressed another quick kiss to his lips, leaving him breathless.

"I'll wait for you. I'm stable."


End file.
